National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Chairman, this bill continues the long, proud tradition of bipartisan work by the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, and it is the result of our commitment to work through and share responsibility on these tough decisions necessary to manage our Nation's military risk.

I especially want to thank my chairman, Chairman Rob Wittman, and his staff for their support in building this strong bipartisan bill.

Mr. Chairman, this bill carefully addresses affordability and achievability of the current and future modernization needs of our force. At the same time, this bill continues the oversight necessary to ensure accountability and responsible execution of DOD programs, including:

Tactical strike-fighter and rotary-wing aircraft programs to improve program management, reduce operational risk, remedy deficiencies, and support sufficient capability and capacity to meet current and future requirements;

The Department's manned and unmanned intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft and how we are meeting global requirements for these systems that we have invested in; and

Careful watch over the Army's ambitious modernization strategy and the Marine Corps' Force Design 2030 with its supporting modernization priorities.

Critically important for the United States, as well as for our friends and allies around the world, this bill continues what we started 4 years ago--before the beginning of the Ukrainian war--to identify and buy down modernization and safety risks in our munitions industrial base.

Mr. Chairman, this bill also includes language from the Military Industrial National Defense Supply Act, the MINDS Act, a bill that I introduced earlier this year, that talks about, once again, making sure that we collectively are working together. Additionally, this year, along with our most trusted allies and international partners, we are ensuring the security of our supply chain.

The world has changed, Mr. Chairman, and now the United States and its allies are truly an arsenal of democracies. This legislation, therefore, will help stabilize America's defense industrial base production and increase the security of both America and our allies' critical supply chains.

Finally, I thank the subcommittee's professional staff: Jay, Dave, Heath, Michael, and Max, and certainly the personal staff of my office who helped put this together to make this bill truly a functional, bipartisan bill. I urge its support.

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